Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino must decide whether he scraps his recent back four and returns to the back three that had been serving his team so well when Middlesbrough come to White Hart Lane tomorrow.

Spurs have returned to using a back four in the games against Wycombe Wanderers in the FA Cup and the goalless draw at Sunderland in the Premier League on Tuesday night.

However the team has struggled in both matches and against the Black Cats in particular failed to carve out many opportunities in front of goal.

When asked in his press conference today whether he would return to the back three that brought Tottenham so much success in January, albeit without the injured Danny Rose, he was understandably coy.

"It's an option, we'll see tomorrow. I never like to explain the day before to you but it's an option to play three at the back or four," he said.

"We have different players who can play the position. We have Kevin Wimmer and Ben Davies with Toby [Alderweireld] and Eric Dier. For me it's not important the formation, it's important how we develop our philosophy on the pitch."

Will Kevin Wimmer start the match?

The boss also revealed when asked by football.london that young speedy full-back Kyle Walker-Peters would not be involved in tomorrow's matchday squad despite the injuries to Rose and Kieran Trippier.

Wimmer needs a run of matches to sort out his patchy displays and we reckon that he will return to the line-up against Middlesbrough alongside Dier and Alderweireld with Davies at left wing-back.

Read More

That means there's no place for Heung-Min Son after his performance against Sunderland. Although he did not produce any less than Christian Eriksen or Dele Alli, those two are so vital to Spurs that Son is the one who drops to the bench.

In order to keep things fresh, we've decided to give Mousa Dembele a rest after his hacking at the hands of Jack Rodwell to allow Harry Winks to do his thing at White Hart Lane after some impressive recent showings.